worried about depressed daughter

mol10e
Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:43:26 +0000

Realyworried if your daughter has always had trouble with change and can’t quite put her finger on the causes of her unhappiness, you might be looking at her (and you) having to put up with her emotional distress for some time as it will be hard for her to change her thinking or her behavior to improve her mood and life. With that in mind you want to make sure (and her counselor) that she is not suicidal and that she is able to concentrate and attend to her studies. The two biggest risks for depressed college students is a high degree of hopelessness leading to suicidal thoughts, and poor academic performance due to impaired concentration. In my opinion I would not be in a rush to bring her home or to run around getting her medications changed. For a kid who doesn’t handle change well, new meds and going home could be quite disruptive. I would encourage her that adjustment to college takes a lot of time for many kids and that she can learn to have more control over her moods and her life over time through therapy and facing the challenges of college life.